Caitlin Wasielewski

Catch-22
Catch-22 can be defined as a frustrating situation in which one is trapped by
contradictory conditions, as any illogical or paradoxical problem or situation, and as a
condition or regulation that prevents the solution of a problem. Catch-22 by Joseph
Heller tells the story of a bombardier, Yossarian, and his squadron in Italy during World
War II. This novel follows Yossarian, our anti-hero, and his friends through their hellish
and absurd existence in the latter half of the war. On the surface, Catch-22 is a war
novel that is utterly unromantic and relies heavily on satirical humor to highlight the
complete insanity, repulsiveness, and meaninglessness of war. In a much broader
scope, Catch-22 is not only about the evil of war, but also the evil of life and mere
existence.
This novel does not follow the typical plot line of regular story, instead it features
a series of tangential stories about Yossarian and multitude of other characters in loose
chronological order. The story is set during the latter part of World War II on an island
called Pianosa, located off the Italian coast, where Yossarian is stationed with his Air
Force squadron. While stationed, Yossarian and his friends suffer at the hands of
blindly ambitious superior officers who see their squadron, not as individuals with lives,
but as a vehicle for power and notoriety. They are thoughtlessly thrown into dangerous
and brutal bombing missions in which it is more important to capture good aerial
photographs than actually hit the target. The number of required missions is constantly
being raised, just as Yossarian gets close, preventing the men from being sent home.

Yossarian seems to be the only person that realizes a war is occurring and he is
furious that his life is constantly in danger through no fault of his own. As a result of this,
he tries to spend as much time in the hospital as possible to avoid flying missions.
Throughout the novel, Yossarian is constantly haunted by a memory of a fellow officer,
Snowden, who dies in his arms during a mission. It is during that moment, we assume,
Yossarian lost all desire to participate in the war. After Snowdens death, Yossarian is
plagued by numerous instances of bad luck - he watches his friends disappear and
die, his superiors volunteer his squadron for the most perilous missions to enhance their
own reputations, and his own squadrons mess officer orchestrates a bombing on their
unit in the name of profit.
As Yossarians story unfolds, we also see a number of other stories unfold
around him. His affluent, young friend Nately falls in love with a whore in Rome who
seems to feel indifferent about him. After weeks of yearning for her, she finally falls in
love with Nately, only for him to be killed on his next mission. Yossarian must be the
bearer of bad news and Natelys whore (as shes referred to in the novel) spends the
rest of the novel donning disguises and trying to kill him. Orr, Yossarians tent mate,
spends most missions crash landing into the ocean and being picked up by rescue
patrols until one day he doesnt return. Another subplot that arises is that of Milo
Minderbinder, the squadrons mess officer, who turns one small profit-generating deal
into a huge black market operation he refers to as a harmless syndicate. Milo manages
to work with multiple militaries to borrow planes and pilots in order to transport food
throughout Europe claiming that, because its a syndicate, everyone has a share. Milo

is able to make a tremendous profit seemingly out of nothing because, as we later find
out, he is trading food and goods within his own enterprise.
As the novel comes to an end, Yossarian, distraught over Natelys death, refuses
to fly any more missions. He wanders the streets of Rome witnessing multiple heinous
acts, even watching a fellow officer kill a prostitute. Eventually, Yossarian is arrested for
being in Rome without a pass. When he arrives back at camp, his superior officers offer
him a deal: They will send Yossarian home as long as he endorses them and states
support for their policy. Yossarian, although tempted, turns down the offer when he
realizes that the other men will still have to fly the 80 missions and endanger their lives.
Unwilling to receive a court martial either, Yossarian decides to flee to neutral Sweden,
in turn rejecting the rule of Catch-22 and gaining control of his own life.
All through the novel, Yossarian finds himself in the most bizarre, nonsensical
and calamitous of situations. This is because Heller uses a recurring motif, Catch-22, to
tell Yossarians story. It can be argued that satire is a very effective way to convey a
difficult or controversial message. We know that our real world is nowhere near as
illogical as the one in Catch-22 and we are able to laugh at the exaggerations that are
made. We can find humor in the frustrating and ironic situations of Catch-22 while still
understanding the messages that Heller is trying to convey.
In the novel, Catch-22 is defined various ways in different circumstances, each
time using the humor in insanity to highlight the madness of war. The first time we see
this idea used is when Yossarian discovers he can be grounded from flying missions if
he is considered crazy. Of course, he jumps at the chance only to learn that he can
never be grounded due to the cyclical logic of Catch-22. This first concept is explained

perfectly in one of the most iconic paragraphs in the novel, There was only one catch
and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for ones own safely in the face
of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was
crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he
would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly
more missions and sane if he didnt, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew
them he was crazy and didnt have to; but if he didnt want to he was sane and had to.
Catch-22, in this instance, is intended to make it impossible for anyone to be grounded
from service. The reader can clearly see that this is an impossible paradox; there is no
way out for these officers.
Toward the end of the novel, Catch-22 is defined as a law that states: one can do
anything they cant be stopped from doing. Yossarian discovers that the brothel where
Natelys whore and her kid sister had been staying has been busted. He travels back to
Rome to look for the kid sister, who he feels a sense of responsibility for. While scouring
the brothel, Yossarian stumbles upon the old woman who used to help run the place.
She, in a catatonic state of grief, can only repeat the word gone. Yossarian persists in
questioning her and discovers that M.P. officers claiming Catch-22 have chased all the
girls out. It is after this interaction that Yossarian realizes that Catch-22 does not exist.
Yossarian leaves the apartment cursing Catch-22 vehemently even though he knew
that there was no such thing. Catch-22 did not exist, he was positive of that, but it made
no difference. What did matter was that everyone thought it existed, and that was much
worse, for there was no object or text to ridicule or refute, to accuse, criticize, attack,
amend, hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreds, trample upon or burn up. Therein lies the

power of Catch-22. It does not need to physically exist, as long as everyone believes
that it does. And because it does not physically exist, it only becomes more powerful
because it cannot be repealed in the conventional sense. In order to fully abolish Catch22, we must abolish the groupthink behind it.
In the novel, Heller makes many implications about the relationship of the
bureaucracy to the individual. Yossarians squadrons colonel, Cathcart, desperately
wants to be promoted to general, so much so that he will do almost anything, no matter
how inhumane or illogical. Colonel Cathcart does not concern himself with political
agendas or even winning the war, he only acts so that he may be glorified and
remembered when the war is over. He categorizes experiences as feathers in his cap
or black eyes. He believes that constantly raising the number of missions will make his
squadron look superior. He also prioritizes tight bomb formations and good aerial
photographs over actually hitting the target . The officers see through this and only
concern themselves with surviving long enough to go home. Both situations contribute
to the theme of uselessness of war. Neither party cares about who wins or who gets
hurt.
Heller also uses the story of Milo Minderbinder to contribute to insanity of the
world they inhabit, though Milos story is one of capitalism rather than war. Milo starts a
small business dealing in black market eggs which he then expands into an
international enterprise he refers to as a syndicate. Milo seems simultaneously brilliant
and crazy; he is somehow able to bend the rules and generate massive amounts of
profit by trading amongst himself. His syndicate seems harmless at first and everyone
seems to love Milo. Unfortunately, overtaken by greed, Milo orchestrates a bombing on

his own squadron. This time Milo had gone too far. Bombing his own men and planes
was more than even the most phlegmatic observer could stomach, and it looked like the
end for him Not one voice was raised in his defense. Decent people everywhere were
affronted, and Milo was all washed up until he opened his books to the public and
disclosed the tremendous profit he had made. He could reimburse the government for
all the people and property he had destroyed and still have money left over
Everybody, of course, owned a share. And the sweetest part of the whole deal was that
there was really no need to reimburse the government at all. This section of the story
certainly drives the point home about the craziness of it all, at least it did for me. How
could a man organize a bombing on his own squadron, his fellow officers, and not bat
an eye because he was making absurd amounts of money. Even more unsettling is the
fact that no one did anything once Milo revealed how much money he made. Obviously,
money is of high importance, regardless of whether it comes from friend or foe, and
within the war, it seems as if Milo will side with whatever is more profitable.
Toward the end of the novel, we are presented with a shocking depiction of
morality. Over the course of the novel, the death of another character, Snowden, is
hinted at and alluded to. We know that this moment is a pivotal one for Yossarian but we
dont fully understand why until the second to last paragraph. Yossarians plane had
been hit and the gunner, Snowden, who was just a kid, seems to be badly injured.
Yossarian identifies a large wound on the kids leg and works to bandage the wound
and get it under control. Snowden repeatedly tells Yossarian that he is cold. Yossarian
tries to comfort him only to realize that Snowden is more gravely injured than he could
imagine or even begin to treat. Yossarian was cold, too, and shivering uncontrollably.

He felt goose pimples clacking all over him as he gazed down despondently at the grim
secret Snowden had spilled all over the messy floor. It was easy to read the message in
his entrails. Man was matter, that was Snowdens secret. Drop him out a window and
hell fall. Set fire to him and hell burn. Bury him and hell rot, like other kinds of garbage.
The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowdens secret. Ripeness and all. It is at
this moment, we realize why Yossarian had been trying to hard to stay alive and escape
the war. Death is uncontrollable. It is inevitable. By learning this, Yossarian understands
how precious life is and it is not enough to just exist, especially under a government like
the one in Catch-22. Yossarian understands that he must live on his own terms and
seek out the best in life, which is why he decides to flee at the end of the novel.
Another underlying message also arises in the novel, one much larger than war,
and it is that of God, humanity and life in itself. It is hidden in chapter 18 and confined to
a short outburst by Yossarian to Lieutenant Scheisskopfs wife in which he says, And
don't tell me God works in mysterious ways, Yossarian continued, hurtling over her
objection. There's nothing so mysterious about it. He's not working at all. He's playing
or else He's forgotten all about us. That's the kind of God you people talk abouta
country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed. Good
God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to
include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of creation?
What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatological mind of His when
He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world
did he ever create pain? ... Oh, He was really being charitable to us when He gave us
pain! ... What a colossal, immortal blunderer! When you consider the opportunity and

power He had to really do a job, and then look at the stupid, ugly little mess He made of
it instead, His sheer incompetence is almost staggering. In this section, Yossarian
denounces God and everything He has created. Throughout the novel, we understand
that war is bad and death is bad but through this passage, Yossarian tells us that even
life is bad; mere existence on this Earth is evil and horrible.
Catch-22 is a masterpiece of a novel and we see hidden themes and messages
penetrating every aspect of the novel. By not telling the story in chronological order,
Heller is able to convey a feeling of apprehension about time and its inevitable lead to
death. He shows the reader, in numerous ways, how the war and this illogical world it
takes place in affects each kind of character. Catch-22 is not an accurate representation
of war, but rather a means of showing the reader the meaninglessness of it. Catch-22 is
beautifully complex and it would take a very long time to explore and explain every
nuance written into the book, but I believe it comes together very well at by the end and
there is a lot that can be taken from this novel.